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On the cross-cultural formation of conceptology

Seldikov Aleksandr Mergenovich

Master's Degree, the department of Folklore and Sociocultural Activity, Kalmyk State University named after B. B. Gorodovikov

358011, Russia, respublika Kalmykiya, g. Elista, 4 mikroraion, 48, kv. 2A

seldikov1999@mail.ru
Other publications by this author
 

 
Salykova Valeriya Vasil'evna

PhD in Philology

Docent, the department of Kalmyk Language, Mongolian Studis and Altai Studies, Kalmyk State University named after B. B.Gorodovikov

358014, Russia, respublika Kalmykiya, g. Elista, ul. 8 Mikroraion, 6

seldikov1999@mail.ru

DOI:

10.25136/2409-8698.2022.2.33620

Received:

07-08-2020


Published:

13-02-2022


Abstract: This research focuses on examination of the concept from cross-cultural perspective. It is substantiated by the fact that currently the study of cross-cultural communication on the level of concept is important due to the idea of spiritual unity of people of different nationalities and increase of the ethical level. The article reveals the theoretical specificity, role and place of the concept. Analysis is conducted on the concepts of linguistic worldviews The author explores the key approaches towards comprehension of the concept as a cross-cultural formation – as the basic unit in mental world of a person, as the unit of cognitive semantics, as the intermediary between words and reality. These approaches are based on definition of the concept as what denotes the content of the concept. The researchers associate the concept of concept with the cognition of the world. The representation of linguistic worldview may be on the lexical level, as well as on the level of various texts, which implies fuller coverage of the material. The worldviews reflect the perception of the world by linguistic personalities of different ethnic groups, affecting their mentality. Such influence manifests in assessment of the state and changes in the environment, role of the linguistic personality, its attitude towards the world, itself, others, as well as its behavior. The linguistic worldview is mobile, and thus devoid of passivity and rigid standardization. It is established that the linguistic worldview is represented on the level of linguistic unit, as well as the level of various types of text interpreted in a particular culture. Representing the view and perception of linguocultural community, the worldview determines the mentality of the representatives of a particular culture or nationality, which manifests in their assessment of the state of the environment and the possibility of its change, position and attitude of a person towards the world, nature, animals, himself, and other people, as well as in behavior.


Keywords:

linguistic view of the world, concept, intercultural education, language, intellection, human, culture, text, nation, subject

This article is automatically translated. You can find original text of the article here.

The concept is the value of a particular culture, it represents in a concentrated form the totality of spiritual achievements of people. Nevertheless, the term "linguistic picture of the world" remains the most common variant in the scientific literature. According to N.N. Goncharova, the language picture is a complex constructor of mental and linguistic aspects. This concept is characterized by the collection of data on individual and collective representations of the surrounding world, the representation of which occurs within the boundaries of a certain language [1, p. 10].

At the same time, it is worth pointing out the conditionality of the specifics and structure of the linguistic picture of the world by the means of language itself. This is due to the fact that people's knowledge about the world around us is being formed in the language and is constantly being updated. The activity in which a person takes part contributes to the knowledge of the world in all its complexity, which is reflected, first of all, in the vocabulary. Accordingly, the sum of all knowledge and ideas about the world serves as the basis for the concept of a linguistic picture of the world.

"The huge gain of a person with a developed language," writes A.M. Luria, "is that the world doubles. With the help of a language that designates objects, he can deal with objects that are not directly perceived and that are not part of his own experience ... A person has a double world, which includes the world of directly reflected objects, and the world of images, objects, relationships and qualities that are designated by the words"[5, c. 8].

The peculiarities of the linguistic picture of the world and its nature are determined by language, since language is the most important way of forming and maintaining human knowledge about the world. In the process of activity, a person learns about the objective world and records the results of cognition in the word. The totality of this knowledge, presented in a linguistic form, is the linguistic picture of the world, which is also called the "linguistic intermediate world", "linguistic representation of the world", "linguistic model of the world".

The linguistic picture of the world presupposes the existence of close links between language and thinking, the environment, culture, ethnic phenomena, including intra-linguistic processes. «Language is a system of understanding, that is, ultimately, the understanding of the world; language is the understanding of the world itself," wrote A.F. Losev [4, p. 822].

N. D. Shvedova presented the structural organization of the linguistic picture of the world. It is depicted as an open canvas, on which there are various components of the sections connecting at the top. In other words, the components of the linguistic picture of the world are arranged hierarchically. Speaking directly about the top, the scientist writes that this position is occupied by a person. At the same time, two main branches are adjacent to the top. If the first branch carries the meaning of the person himself, his existence and the results of his activities, then the second – of what surrounds him. It is this vertex with two branches that is represented by the primary division to reflect the peculiarities of people's perception of themselves and the environment.

However, the division does not end there. Since new components appear with the knowledge of the world, they undergo their internal differentiation. That is, within the larger sections of the linguistic picture of the world, smaller components are distinguished in their volume and significance, which, in turn, continue to divide in accordance with the principle of stepwise narrowing.

Thus, the linguistic picture of the world is characterized by hierarchy, fragmentation and structural complexity. The linguistic picture of the world reflects its bilaterality. On the one hand, each person, when cognizing the environment, is guided by the system and structure of his native language, the semantic and lexical-grammatical features of which determine his thinking and behavioral characteristics. On the other hand, the formation of various living conditions of society, the differences of the surrounding and objective world are firmly included in the foundation of language. Accordingly, the linguistic picture of the world is inseparable from the cognizing subject, as a result of which the image of the world is formed. This image captures the experience of people and the opportunity to describe it by linguistic means. Therefore, in this case we are talking about the principle of anthropocentrism. An all-encompassing, large-scale image of the world as a consequence of all the efforts of mankind to capture it becomes the foundation of the linguistic picture of the world.

The latter is capable of performing the function of interpreting the environment and regulating the orientation of a person in this environment.

In addition to the above-mentioned functions, the linguistic picture of the world is characterized by a nominative function (the name of a certain phenomenon, object, subject, situation, process, etc.); the function of representing the products of categorical analysis in the environment; the function of identification and socialization, which are associated with the specifics of human associations with a particular social group and culture. All natural national languages have a unique picture of the world. It determines how a person learns and organizes the environment when it is correlated with a certain culture. In other words, the linguistic picture of the world influences the content and organizational aspects of the representation of the world by a linguistic personality. This is the evidence of subjectivity in the perception and fixation of knowledge in the language system.

The more special languages appear, the more special pictures of the world are formed. However, one should not lose sight of the fact that each person still has his own, original, individual picture of the world. This is of paramount importance when distinguishing different types of the linguistic picture of the world.

Apresyan Yu.D., Postovalova V.I., Maslova V.A. and other researchers have proposed various ways to determine certain combinations of types of the linguistic picture of the world. Summarizing their experience, we present a classification based on three main grounds:

This is how the multiplicity, multifragmentality and hierarchy of the linguistic picture of the world are manifested. The linguistic picture of the world has a dual nature. On the one hand, the living conditions of people, the material world surrounding them determine their consciousness and behavior, which is reflected in their linguistic picture of the world; on the other, a person perceives the world mainly through the forms of his native language, its semantics and grammar, which determines the structures of thinking and behavior. The linguistic picture of the world is a subjective image of the objective world, it carries the features of the human way of understanding the world, that is, anthropocentrism, which permeates the entire language.

The linguistic picture of the world is an integral, global image of the world, which is the result of all the spiritual activity of a person, it arises in a person during all his contacts with the world. The linguistic picture of the world performs two basic functions: interpretive, providing a vision of the world, and regulatory, serving as a guide for a person in the world.

In addition to the basic functions, the following functions are distinguished: naming (objects, signs, phenomena, processes, states, relationships, situations, events, etc.); explication of the results of categorization of reality phenomena; identification of world phenomena; orientation in the surrounding world, socialization, attribution to a certain culture, to a certain society. Each natural ethnic language has a special picture of the world, i.e. it reflects a certain way of perceiving and organizing the world. The linguistic personality organizes the content of the utterance in accordance with the linguistic picture of the world, and this manifests a specifically human perception of the world, fixed in the language.

The presence of specific languages leads to the emergence of specific linguistic pictures of the world among representatives of different peoples. But there are also individual worldviews that differ from person to person. And this should be taken into account when talking about the typology of linguistic pictures of the world.

In the scientific literature (Apresyan Yu.D., Maslova V.A., Postovalova V.I.), various typologies of linguistic pictures of the world are proposed. In general, the classification of linguistic pictures of the world, in our opinion, is possible on the following three grounds.

1. First of all, it is necessary to rely on subjects or speakers of linguistic pictures of the world. «There are as many pictures of the world as there are observers in contact with the world" [6, p. 32]. Accordingly, it is possible to distinguish a collective ("sofia") a linguistic picture of the world, as well as an individual – a picture of the world of a certain linguistic personality. Nevertheless, the pictures of the world of linguistic personalities in their totality serve as the basis of a holistic, comprehensive and all-encompassing ethnic linguistic picture of the world. But the linguistic worldviews of various ethnic groups are not devoid of constancy and independence from the time factor. The linguistic picture of the world is the main component of the individual picture of the world. Despite the fact that the largest group picture of the world is recognized as ethnic, researchers additionally distinguish territorial, professional, and social linguistic pictures of the world. In addition, the linguistic picture of the world of a child and an adult is distinguished.

2. The second criterion for the classification of linguistic pictures of the world is based on the object of representation. As you know, it is the environment that is the object of reflection of linguistic pictures of the world. Nevertheless, it can represent only individual components of the world, as opposed to the holistic, complex and interdependent nature of its existence. The following environmental fragments are taken into account:

a) the volume of the object to be displayed in the language picture of the world. Consequently, there are global (including mythological, religious, philosophical and scientific) and local linguistic worldview (professional and private sciences worldview). Physics, chemistry, biology, geology, technosphere, cybernetics, sociology, computer science, mathematics and other sciences form a local linguistic picture of the world. This led to the separation of micro-, macro- and megamir paintings. The nature and results of the activity of the linguistic personality predetermined the allocation of rationally processed pictures of the world. Among them, we note functional, probability-theoretic, informational, etc. An artistic or picture-shaped picture of the world is singled out separately [3, p. 27].

b) The quality of the object to be displayed in the linguistic picture of the world. This category is distinguished by the distinction between scientific and naive linguistic pictures of the world. If we talk about the naive linguistic picture of the world, then its difference from the scientific one lies in the accumulation of knowledge of "ordinary" people about the environment as the localization of their existence, activity and representation of their own ideas about it. In other words, it is a "spontaneously emerging idea of the outside world, fixed in everyday practice" [8, p. 17]. All the content that is invested in the naive linguistic picture of the world of a certain ethnic group is characterized by naive physical knowledge about space and time, about physiology, politics, economics, ethics, etc.

Yu. D. Apresyan drew attention to the fact that for a naive linguistic picture of the world, a distinctive feature is a pre-scientific character. It is not part of the scientific picture of the world, preserving the features of archaism in the accumulated preservation. For example: the sun can rise and set. An ordinary person, as the creator of a naive picture of the world, relies on thinking that is "unable to penetrate deeply into the essence of objects and phenomena," unlike scientific thinking, "is usually content with the results of superficial observations" [7, p. 106].

3. The third criterion for the classification of linguistic pictures of the world is the method of linguistic representation of linguistic pictures of the world. Thus, there are various pictures of the world that correspond to the components of national languages: a literary linguistic picture of the world and a picture of the world based on social, professional or territorial aspects. In addition, functional varieties of language can also serve the purpose of highlighting individual linguistic pictures of the world.

Nevertheless, the most characteristic features of a particular linguistic picture of the world are noticed at the lexical level. This is due to the ability of vocabulary to categorize the environment, to focus attention on certain objects and processes that are in the field of view of cognizing subjects. The close interrelationships of vocabulary and language pictures of the world are regulated by the conditions of social activity, which, in turn, indicates its permeability, relative openness and multicomponence in structural construction. The researchers insist that vocabulary plays one of the main roles in creating linguistic pictures of the world. However, they also point out that it is necessary to avoid giving special importance to individual lexemes on the scale of the entire linguistic picture of the world. The picture of the world is realized through the language of a certain people. Accordingly, language is an independent image of the world, reflected in a particular culture. It is obvious that cultures have both similarities and differences, which in turn is reflected in concepts as intercultural entities.

Here is a quote from Y.N. Karaulov: "A single word from the point of view of its position in the hierarchy is similar to an "elementary object" and therefore, like an atom, is "indistinguishable" at the level where the "picture of the world" is formed, although there is no fundamental mistake in considering each individual word an element of the picture of the world" [2, p. 268].

Based on the fact of the importance of the lexical level of the language for the formation of a unique linguistic picture of the world, it is also worth remembering the classification of various texts – scientific, philosophical, poetic, journalistic, proverbs and sayings. But it should be taken into account that semiotics refers to any form of representation of the worldview as a text, starting with linguistic texts and social institutions, ending with monuments of material culture.

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